Instant feedback can help save energy

December 15, 2007|KEN SHEINKOPF McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Q. I noticed several energy measurement meters for sale in our local building supply store, and thought one of these might be interesting to help monitor our energy use. Do you recommend products like this, and do you think they'd help make any difference? A. I do and I do. Over the years, there have been studies on the impact of instantaneous feedback on a home's energy use, and they generally have concluded that it could help reduce energy use by 10 to 15 percent. When you get your monthly electric bill, you know exactly how much energy your home used in the previous billing period. You just don't know how much each of the elements in that total contributed to the bill -- how much came from your refrigerator or computer or plasma TV, etc. I've been aware of these easy-to-use energy monitors for some time, but have noticed lately that the prices have dropped considerably and the product's features have improved. I've seen some for around $100, in fact, and there are probably even cheaper ones available now. Researchers at the Florida Solar Energy Center and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory did a study last year that confirmed that instant feedback on energy use can trigger behavioral changes that can save significant amounts of energy. Plug your appliance or product into one of these units and then plug it into the wall and you get an instant read-out of the energy being used. A home entertainment center tested by the researchers used 220 watts a day of constant energy use, even when the TV and sound system were not being used. A home office and computer system used 25 watts continuously when turned off. A PC server used more than 140 watts continuously. You can read the complete research paper at www.fsec.ucf.edu/ en/publications/pdf/FSEC-CR-1665-06.pdf. Ken Sheinkopf is a communications specialist with the American Solar Energy Society (www.ases.org). Send your energy questions to askken@ases.org.